A Change Of Heart
by Rhea - Tasuki's Buddy
Summary: Aiko's managed to find her way to the Konan kingdom and is ready to tell the Suzako no Miko and her seishi that she (Aiko) is supposed to be one of them...
1. A Change Of Heart Chapter 1

The sun rose with an orange-blossom hue and slowly began to kiss the homes of a small village in the country of Konan. From the west, a flaming red creature flew, heading towards the same village. As it slowly landed on the ground, just outside the limits, it changed into human form, its hair still burning the same red color. It walked forward, towards one of the more run- down huts, and pushed open the door. There, a man kneeled by his bed, his obviously pregnant wife gripping his hand tightly as she huffed out her breath, as if trying to grab it with her mouth. The man looked up as soon as he heard his cottage door open. "Suzako!" he exclaimed as he saw the brilliant figure standing in the home's doorway. His wife lay there and continued her breath-catching. "What brings you to our small home in the middle of nowhere?" he asked as he held his wife's hand tighter. Suzako stepped forward and motioned for the man to move out of his way. As the husband did so, Suzako finished his movement by placing his right index and middle finger upon the wife's plump stomach and recited a chant. The woman immediately stopped breathing hard, and a warm glow surrounded her body and began to brighten. The husband looked on with fear for his wife's and his unborn child's safety. Suzako turned away from the woman and took a seat upon a dusty chair in another corner of the one-room hut. "Your child has been selected to be one of the Suzaku seishi and a symbol shall appear upon his right forearm," Suzako said as he crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair. Suddenly, the woman screamed out in agony and arched her back in pain. "It's time," Suzako stated. After hours of blood, pushing, and screaming, the woman finally gave birth to a beautiful little girl. Suzako stood suddenly and stared at the child in disbelief, and disgust rose in his eyes and the rest of his face. "This cannot be!" he shouted at the woman and the man, anger obviously taking away his cool demeanor. He lashed out at the woman and child with a strike of his hand in the air. The man grabbed the baby, but fell to the ground before he could protect his wife from the gust of wind. When he lifted his head and looked at where his wife had been lying, he saw her corpse upon the bed, covered in thick blood. The baby began to cry loudly and her symbol appeared on her right forearm. "Please, spare my daughter," the man begged as he clutched his little girl close to his chest. Suzako looked at both of them in disgust and scowled even deeper as he saw the symbol on the girl. "I shall not have a female be one of my seishi, but I shall allow your insignificant child, live. unfortunately for you and her, I shall remove her powers and give them to a proper child." Suzako began another chant and the man watched sadly as the warm glow around his daughter began to weaken and then completely disappear. Suzako turned away and began to leave the room, not noticing that a small portion of the power was still left in the little girl and that she was smiling at him. The door slammed in the man's face as he lowered his head into his daughter's face and began to weep for the death of his wife. Suzako took off to another village nearby and gave the powers to a small red-haired boy born just a few days earlier then the little girl. 


	2. A Change Of Heart Chapter 2

~*~ 17 years later ~*~  
  
The dewdrops on the grass leaves slowly coated the bare feet of a young woman as she ran through a large meadow near a small village. A ragged apron covered her short-skirted legs and a ripped top lay upon her upper body. Even though her clothes were obviously worn to their limit, a bright smile graced her face as she came closer to the village and saw an old man with a long, white beard waiting outside a small hut for her, a sun-hat upon his head. "Time for dinner, Aiko!" he shouted at her as she came closer to the small cottage. The young woman ran into the cottage and pulled some cracked bowls and some bitten-down chopsticks from an old cupboard and set them onto a small table with only three legs and a stool for the fourth. She took the small pot of rice off the rusted stove and scooped some out into the bowls with her hand after she wrapped it in a burnt rag. "Ok, it's set, papa," she said to the old man as he slowly hobbled into the hut on his stick that she had found for him in a forest near the village. "I hear that the Konan empire has found the Suzako no Miko and they are keeping her in the kingdom," he said to start up a conversation with his daughter. He looked up with kindly, yet worn, blue eyes under a mop of shaggy white hair. "I know, papa. I think I shall go to the kingdom and let them know about me," Aiko replied. The old man shook his head at her as he swallowed a small bite of rice. "No, Aiko. That's not wise; Suzako chose to remove your powers and your destiny from you, so you should not become involved with something that you are truly not." Aiko slammed her palms on the table as she dropped her chopsticks. "Don't tell me that papa! I know Suzako stole my true chance at a decent life, but it doesn't mean I can't take a jump at getting it!" She stood suddenly and went over to the worn bed, still covered with dried up blood from her mother's death, "I have a feeling mama would have wanted me to do this." She picked up one of the red sheets and wrapped it around her arms like a shawl and began to walk towards the door. "I'm going, papa, I shall see you when my destiny permits so, good-bye," she said softly as she walked out the door and towards the Konan kingdom. "Aiko, wait!" her father shouted after her, but she wouldn't stop and he tried to get up, but fell over without his crutch. Aiko heard him fall, but she couldn't look back, it would just stop her from what she had been meaning to do all her life, but she let tears escape from her eyes as she continued on down the cobbled road and out of her home town.  
  
~*~Konan Empire/Kingdom - 5 days later~*~  
  
Hotohori sat upon his throne, a hand to his head as he was discussing some battling business with Miaka, Tamahome, Tasuki, Nuriko, and Chichiri. Mitsukake and Chiriko had gone away for a week, needing some time for themselves. Suddenly, the main doors were pushed open and a couple of guards came in, dragging a struggling woman in a bloodied cloak across the marble floor-way, towards the throne. Miaka gasped in horror and Tamahome clutched her close. "What is the meaning of this?!" Hotohori shouted at them as they stopped at the bottom of the stairway. The woman continued to struggle, and the other seishi just stared down at her with a strange disgust, but yet it wasn't quite disgust. "We brought her here because she keeps saying she has personal business with the Suzako no Miko and her seishi, and she wouldn't leave after we kept trying to send her away, your majesty," one of the guards stated. "Leave her with us and everyone except Miaka and the seishi leave this room!" Hotohori shouted his orders and then glared down at the woman that was now on her hands and knees after being thrown down by the two guards. Once everyone had abandoned the room and the last set of doors had been closed, Hotohori ordered the woman to stand. As she did so, he looked her over and saw all the rags covering her body, the bruises upon her arms, and the cuts across her legs. She looked up at him with cold, yet scared, lavender eyes, her long emerald hair pulling out from under the blood-covered sheet. "What business do you speak of?" 


	3. A Change Of Heart Chapter 3

Aiko looked at the emperor, somewhat scared of him for he was the almighty ruler of the entire kingdom of which she lived in. His long, silken brunette hair was tied into a loose bun structure and he wore white robes lined at the bottom with stitching of green fire and red roses. His eyes were warm and somewhat forgiving for what she had pulled with his guards outside earlier. She calmed down a bit and tugged her sheet a little tighter to give her some warmth. The windows in the room gave her long, pale legs a huge draft and made her shiver like it was a winter's day for any normal dressed person. "My lord," she began, as she looked again to Hotohori's eyes, "As the guard had said before, I am here for official business with the Suzako no Miko and her seishi, and it would mean a great deal to me if you could let her know and have her hear me out." Aiko's legs suddenly collapsed beneath her and she gasped in shock as she felt them began to freeze and slowly begin to numb. She heard a girl gasp and looked up suddenly to see a young female staring at her in awe, and dressed in some odd clothing. "Tasuki!" Hotohori shouted at the red-haired man standing near his throne, "Help her to her feet. Nuriko, please help to and then bring her to your room for something more suitable for this kind of weather," he motioned to the woman with long purple hair. They both nodded and ran to help Aiko to her feet once again. Tasuki reached her first and slowly put his left hand on her shoulder and his right hand under her right arm. The moment both of his hands touched her, a spark of something passed between them and Aiko freaked. "Get away from me!" she screeched as she shoved him aside and he fell to his bottom and just stared at her with wide eyes and a big, old sweat-drop. Nuriko came up, and put one hand on at a time because she didn't want to be shoved herself, and helped the young woman to her feet, and then swung one of her arms around Aiko's middle back to help her walk a little better than she would without the support. "So, what is your name, sweetie?" Nuriko asked gently as she looked deep into the young girl's lavender eyes in wonder. The girl looked up sadly, as if it hurt her to walk. "Aiko," she whispered like a light breeze over a field of tall grass. "That's pretty," Nuriko answered as she looked down to watch their feet move, and that's when she saw what was making the girl so full of pain. Her legs were bleeding like all heck had broke loose from them. Nuriko gasped and then suddenly lifted the girl into her arms as they left the main room and began to walk into an outside hallway on the inner sanctity of the castle. When they reached the room, Nuriko pulled out some bandages from one of her dresser drawer's and began to wrap up Aiko's legs, making sure not to pull too hard. When she finished, she looked to Aiko, who was now laying down, and watched as tears slowly streamed down her face. Nuriko turned away, not wanting to look at such a display for fear that it might weaken her heart for the poor girl. She walked over to her closet and looked to the women's side of it and pulled out a pair of ivory, skin-tight pants and a hip-long shirt decorated with green Chinese dragons and colored black for a background, lined with white strips. She helped Aiko change and then sat her down at her mirror dresser, slowly combing back her long waves of emerald hair into three small buns in the back of her head. She left two little wisps, one on each side of her face, in the front. "There, that should do it," Nuriko smiled proudly at the work she had done of making a wretched girl look like a beautiful maiden. "Well, now to get you back to Hotohori, er, his majesty, so you can explain all this information you have for the Suzako no Miko and her seishi to him." 


	4. A Change Of Heart Chapter 4

Aiko looked to Nuriko with sad, worn eyes and stood slowly, propping herself against the chair as she let a small dose of pain rush through her leg. She limped rather quickly towards the door, but it seemed as graceful as a swan, no hint of agony exuberating from her, making her seem less like a cripple. Nuriko watched on sadly as she watched the bandages soak with blood, but her heart lifted, knowing that Aiko barely winced, and ignored the pain. she seemed like a true warrior. Nuriko allowed Aiko to get out the door before following in step behind her as she led the emerald green- haired woman back to the main chambers of the kingdom. Hotohori was again sitting in his throne with Miaka and Tamahome standing next to him. Tasuki sat on the floor on the other side of the throne, his arms crossed and his face scrunched with anger. Nuriko couldn't help but giggle at this sight, and then continued to help Aiko back to the bottom of the stairway, then walking up them and taking her place beside the rest of the seishi, leaving Aiko to stand on her own at the bottom. Aiko crossed her right arm across her stomach and pulled her feet together, bowing lowly before Hotohori. "Your Majesty, as I stated before, I have some business with the Suzako no Miko and her seishi, do you know where I could find them?" Hotohori chuckled a bit and Miaka's eyes widened in surprise. "Young woman, do you not know who you stand before?" Aiko looked up and then swallowed her own foolish words as she realized that the emperor and the people with him were the seishi and their Miko. "I apologize for my stupidity, but to continue: I am here to declare that I am looking for the seishi with the symbol of wings upon his right forearm." She looked about them and they all looked to the red-haired man. Was that why she had thrown him back when he had touched her? Because he was the seishi that she was supposed to become? "What of it?!" he shouted coldly at her. She winced a little at his loud words, and then looked at him with her own cold eyes, and replied her answer. "You are me," she started, and wanted to laugh when everyone gave her a 'what the.' look, "You see, Suzako appointed who should become a seishi. I was supposed to become the seishi with the wings, but I was born female, so I was rejected." She stopped talking as he stood suddenly and leapt the stairs to her level. Tasuki stared at Aiko as if he had known her for a thousand years. Her bandaged arm immediately caught his attention and his eyes widened with many different emotions. "What in the." he managed to mumble. He stumbled forward and grabbed her wrist, noticing that she didn't wince. 'She hides her pain or she hides a lie,' he thought mentally. He slowly began to unwrap the bandages, now noticing that she wasn't struggling for him to stop. As the last piece fell off, he saw the symbol upon her forearm. "It can't be. who are you?!" he shouted at her, afraid of seeing the exact same symbol as his own on her. Hotohori stared in amazement from his thrown, the other seishi gasping at the sight. 


	5. A Change Of Heart Chapter 5

Aiko slowly pulled her arm away from Tasuki's firm grip and rubbed at it soothingly. "As I tried to say before, I am the original seishi of wings. You merely took my place because I was born a female, and Suzako did not approve of that. If you want me to prove it to you further than the symbol, than I challenge you to a race." Tasuki just blinked at her with wide, purple eyes, but he still seemed to absorb what she had said. Aiko walked up to Nuriko and removed her hair ribbon; she tenderly folded it, and placed it in one of Nuriko's hands as she brought it up with one of her own. She then took one of the many robes that Nuriko was wearing and began to place it on herself, leaving a shocked look upon Nuriko's face. "What are you doing?!" Tasuki shouted up at her. As she finished wrapping it around herself, she turned towards him and tugged the knot tightly when she stopped. "I'm simply evening the odds. You'd be too slow to keep up with me if I did not add weight to myself." Tasuki clenched his fists tightly and growled underneath his breath at her mocking figure. Aiko seemed to slowly glide down the stairs and when she reached the bottom, she put a slender hand upon Tasuki's broad shoulder and patted it slowly. "Let's start," she began as she removed her hand and then slowly walked over to a large map spanning an entire small wall near the stairs of Hotohori's throne. She studied it carefully and then pointed to one spot just outside the doors of the main room, "We will start there," then she slowly let her finger follow a path she acknowledged to be the course and finished at another spot near the pond where Miaka had gone to when she had first started to get to know Nuriko, "And end there. I believe it to be a fair and simple course, enough to show you my moves, are you ready for it. oh! That reminds me, I never caught your name, what is it?" Tasuki just frowned, crossed his arms, and looked away from her with the expression of a stubborn child. Nuriko came down the stairs and walked over to Aiko. "He's obviously called stubborn," she joked as she gave Aiko her ribbon back, "His name is Tasuki." Aiko looked at the ribbon in her hand and then gave it again to Nuriko. "I shan't be needing that for the race, it'll give me more success. With my hair flailing around me, it'll give him more le-way so he can at least keep up with me during the race," she smiled proudly. A sharp growl of frustration came from Tasuki, as he waved a finger at Aiko's face. "Let's get this over with so you can stop mocking me and obviously see that I'm far more advanced and skilled in the subject of speed then you'll ever know or be!" he shouted at her, obviously aggravated. She laughed whole- heartedly and then began to walk to the main doors. "So it shall began now. Nuriko, please wait at the outer pond for us, it shouldn't take to long for me to meet you there," and with that, Aiko left through the doors and awaited Tasuki, who came stomping out after her, anger steam rising from him. 


End file.
